Welcome back to the Kindred Spirits Podcast. In this episode, we are joined by HR thought leader and one of Culture Amp's Top 25 Emerging Culture Creators for 2024, Vanesa Cotlar. 

Vanesa is an ambitious, people-first leader who spends her days as the VP of People & Culture at PolicyMe. She is passionate about building flexible workplaces and advocates for transparency and ongoing feedback from employees to increase attraction, retention and satisfaction.

Vanesa's impressive background includes working in over 15 countries, serving as a Management Consultant at Monitor Deloitte Canada, and co-founding Octagon Careers, an HR-tech start-up.

In this conversation, we explore Vanesa's early career journey that led to her current leadership role at PolicyMe, including how her experience as a global management consultant shaped the way she approaches problem solving and designing culture initiatives. 

She shares the strategies that the leadership team at PolicyMe, a remote-first company, have created to tackle the challenges that come with remote work. We discuss their unique initiatives that work to foster social connections between colleagues and create an environment of trust between managers and their teams.

We also got Vanesa's advice on how founders can set the foundations of company culture before they've even made their first hire (and why they should). 

This episode is jam-packed with great advice that entrepreneurs, managers, and HR professionals can all benefit from. 

Connect with Vanesa Cotlar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanesa-cotlar/

Connect with Kindred Spirits Podcast:

Website: https://kindredspiritspodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kindredspiritspod

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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kindredspiritspod

Connect with Madeleine Matson Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeleinematson/

Connect with Melissa Jaalaid: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meljlife/